On July 4, 2012, Zack Whittaker, from Trend Micro, published an article titled Security Firm: Android Malware Pandemic by Year’s End. It seems as though malware has gone mobile! The article warns that cyber attacks and malicious apps are targeting Android smart phones. The rapid growth among Android malware attacks is sign of focus criminal interest. At the start of 2012, research found that over 5,000 malicious applications were designed to target the Android mobile phone’s framework or operating system. However, in the past months this figure has risen to 20,000 applications. Even worse, the third quarter it is predicted that over 38,000 applications will be discovered. This figure is projected to grow to 130,000 applications in the fourth quarter. The number of malicious applications for Android phones is not the only problem. Another problem is the rate at which the malicious application is discovered and removed by Google. The article states that more than a dozen applications were downloaded 700,000 times before Google removed the malicious application. Come next year, malware attacks on Android mobile phones could be a major concern for the mobile industry.
After reading this article, I was interested in what these malicious applications actually did. I read another article titled Android Researchers Demo Click jacking Root kit Vulnerability. This article discussed how the malicious applications could steal data, track mobile devices through GPS, and even replace or hide browser windows or app windows. For example, the malware could replace a browser window that you eventually enter your banking information into. The article also notes that malware could be running on a mobile phone without any warning or rebooting of the phone. The article mentioned how students at North Carolina University are working on developing penetration tests for the Android phone and plan on studying how the malware goes undetected and what can be done to solve the problem. Professor Xuxian Jiang stated, “The root kit was not difficult to develop, and no existing mobile security software is able to detect it.”
For the time being, all that can be done for Android users is the method of prevention. All mobile users need to be careful what private and personal information they are freely entering into phone applications. It is recommended that entering any banking information or personal information is done over a secure computer network. Malware will not be able to steal personal information if nothing is available to steal.
Malware Goes Mobile
On July 4, 2012, Zack Whittaker, from Trend Micro, published an article titled Security Firm: Android Malware Pandemic by Year’s End. It seems as though malware has gone mobile! The article warns that cyber attacks and malicious apps are targeting Android smart phones. The rapid growth among Android malware attacks is sign of focus criminal interest. At the start of 2012, research found that over 5,000 malicious applications were designed to target the Android mobile phone’s framework or operating system. However, in the past months this figure has risen to 20,000 applications. Even worse, the third quarter it is predicted that over 38,000 applications will be discovered. This figure is projected to grow to 130,000 applications in the fourth quarter. The number of malicious applications for Android phones is not the only problem. Another problem is the rate at which the malicious application is discovered and removed by Google. The article states that more than a dozen applications were downloaded 700,000 times before Google removed the malicious application. Come next year, malware attacks on Android mobile phones could be a major concern for the mobile industry.
After reading this article, I was interested in what these malicious applications actually did. I read another article titled Android Researchers Demo Click jacking Root kit Vulnerability. This article discussed how the malicious applications could steal data, track mobile devices through GPS, and even replace or hide browser windows or app windows. For example, the malware could replace a browser window that you eventually enter your banking information into. The article also notes that malware could be running on a mobile phone without any warning or rebooting of the phone. The article mentioned how students at North Carolina University are working on developing penetration tests for the Android phone and plan on studying how the malware goes undetected and what can be done to solve the problem. Professor Xuxian Jiang stated, “The root kit was not difficult to develop, and no existing mobile security software is able to detect it.”
For the time being, all that can be done for Android users is the method of prevention. All mobile users need to be careful what private and personal information they are freely entering into phone applications. It is recommended that entering any banking information or personal information is done over a secure computer network. Malware will not be able to steal personal information if nothing is available to steal.